JOINT REVIEW: The Summer War by Naomi Novik
In this poignant, heartfelt novella from the New York Times bestselling author of Spinning Silver and the Scholomance trilogy, a young witch who has inadvertently cursed her brother to live a life without love must find a way to undo her spell.
Celia discovered her talent for magic on the day her beloved oldest brother, Argent, left home. Furious at him for abandoning her in a war-torn land, she lashed out, not realizing her childish, angry words would become imbued with the power of prophecy, dooming him to a life without love.
While Argent wanders the world, forced to seek only fame and glory instead of the love and belonging he truly desires, Celia attempts to undo the curse she placed on him. Yet even as she grows from a girl to a woman, she cannot find the solution—until she learns the truth about the centuries-old war between her own people and the summerlings, immortal beings who hold a relentless grudge against their mortal neighbors.
Now, with the aid of her unwanted middle brother, Celia may be able to both undo her eldest brother’s curse and heal the lands so long torn apart by the Summer War.
Dear Naomi Novik,
Sirius: Janine, Jennie and myself decided to review your novella together.
The story had 129 pages on my kindle, but I felt that it was even shorter read. It took me less than two hours to finish it. The story is a fairy tale and I decided that it was an original one, not a retelling. If it was a retelling I did not recognize what it was based on.
Janine: Agreed, and I loved the originality.
Jennie: Yes, it had familiar fairy-tale elements but also felt very fresh.
Sirius: The action takes place in the fictional state of Prosper where “summer lasted almost five months, longer than in the rest of the mortal world, because they shared a border with the summer lands”. Summer Lands is where summerlings live. I called them fairies in my head though because if the shoe fits .. and to me it did.
Janine: Yes, the summerlings were basically fae, just under a different name.
Sirius: Before Celia was born the book tells us that her father won a Summer war with the king of the Summer Lands and there is an easy peace now. Her father was given the title of the Grand Duke of Veris for his role in the war and this is how the book starts:
Celia was twelve years old on the day she cursed her brother. She had two brothers, but she didn’t count Roric, the middle child, because no one did. He was a thin sour weasel who glared at her whenever he saw her, and almost not a real son of the house. His mother—there had been three wives in a row, one to get each child—had just been a temporary mistress, common-born; Father hadn’t meant to marry her at all. Everyone knew that her son didn’t really matter. But Celia’s oldest brother, Argent, whose mother had been the daughter of an earl, mattered in every way there was. He was Father’s heir and the best knight in the world, so everyone said. Argent was very handsome, too, with black hair that curled and blue-grey eyes, and he’d played with Celia ever since she’d been born. He’d been trained at home, instead of being sent to the king’s circle, and she’d run after him as soon as she could run.
Celia of course did not wish any ill will on her brother, she was just mad at him for leaving home and not taking her with him not realizing how absurd that would be – a young knight taking his twelve year old sister with him while he goes on participating in the summer games and other adventures.
Jennie: I did feel that Celia realized at that moment that she loved Argent more than he loved her, which was poignant for me. She at least definitely *thought* that at the time; I guess whether it was true was up to interpretation. Also, to be fair, Argent was older than Celia but still very young himself.
Sirius: I don’t agree with Celia considering what Argent tried to do for her and was ready to do for her in the last part of the book. I get how a younger sibling may think that an older sibling leaving home does not love them anymore, but I just do not buy it. He went to pursue his life does not mean that he suddenly does not love his kid sister anymore.
Janine: He was the highest priority to her and she was not his highest priority, but very near the top. To me that doesn’t mean he loved her less. As you note he was at the juncture of life where he had to strike out on his own, and he needed to, to have any hope of happiness. And I think it was the right call to refuse to bring Celia with him because it would not have been safe for her to come into the summerlands. The only part that doesn’t quite fit is that he didn’t tell her he was leaving, but sometimes a person has to leave fast to be able to leave at all, and I think this was the case for Argent.
I found the scene where Celia realizes that she invested her words with power and cursed Argent riveting. Novik captures in Celia both the twelve year old child that we recognize and the twelve year old of a more medieval world, where children had to grow up faster. Celia’s father is widowed and so she has to take on some responsibilities at a young age. This was one of the things that made her engaging and interesting. The scene I’m speaking of is especially powerful because Celia crosses the threshold from child to young adult in terms of having to face that she (however unintentionally) did something awful, and then having to deal with a lot of fallout. The curse is truly terrible, because Argent will never have love until it is lifted. And love is the thing Argent wants most and left home for. He is gay and his father doesn’t want him to entertain that.
Jennie: I agree that scene was very powerful, and Celia truly does grow up overnight in a way that was realistic to the world she lived in.
Sirius: I find the blurb a little misleading. It is a correct summary of the story, but to me it implies that Celia was physically trying to undo the curse and while she was indeed thinking a lot about how to undo the curse, she could not take any action even if she knew which action she can take to “uncure” Argent till last quarter of the story when she and Argent finally meet face to face under dramatic circumstances several years later. I do not think I can discuss that since it will be full of spoilers.
I think what I liked the most in the first half of the story was Celia and her second brother Roric finally developing siblings’ bond which could have been built earlier if Celia was not so smitten with Argent. Maybe in this sense his absence helped both of them to become brother and sister not just because they had the same blood, but because they spent time together and started to care for one another.
Janine: Yes, this was lovely. The sibling and family relationships are at the heart of the story. I feel the initial distance between Celia and Roric had to do with the way Roric was treated by their father and by the rest of the household. His mother hadn’t been noble and their father married her reluctantly and disregarded Roric from childhood. That disregard was modeled for Celia and so it doesn’t occur to her to value Roric more until Argent leaves.
Jennie: Roric was my favorite character in the story, though I really loved Celia as well. I liked that there was realism in the depiction of the relationships – Argent, gifted and loved, is perhaps a bit arrogant. Roric, ignored and mistreated, is realistically under-socialized and angry. Celia is fundamentally a good person, but she has to learn to value Roric because she’s been so used to dismissing him as everyone does.
Janine: Roric was not particularly attractive, bright, or noble hearted, but even so, there was more to him than anyone knew. I always like that theme where the undervalued person finally gets appreciation. Celia was my favorite of the characters, though.
What did you think of their father, Veris? My perception of him evolved over the course of the story. He was hardly a white knight (in fact, there’s a scene involving tarnished armor that alludes to that) but I found him thrilling anyway.
Jennie: Veris takes on different roles throughout the story, doesn’t he? At times, he’s almost like a typical fairy-tale father—ineffectual and passive. But eventually, we also see the Veris who accomplished so much earlier in his life.
Janine: I didn’t think the inffectuality was his personality, it was just his devastation after Argent left. The rift between them wasn’t one he could recover from. In a way, he too was living under a curse during those years.
Jennie: Oh, I agree – it was a reaction to Argent leaving (and probably guilt at how the lesson he was trying to teach Argent had backfired).
Janine: What I find interesting about Veris is that he was so ambitious, yet also smart enough not to overreach. He wanted the kingdom to run well, not just to rise to the top. And yet he was shady at times (at least one convenient death occurred on his path). He was very clever in how he outwitted the summerlings.
Sirius: Did you buy that Veris loved his children? I sort of started to buy it when he at least tried to postpone Celia’s wedding, but with Argent and Roric I still was not convinced all that much.
Janine: Oh, I thought he loved Argent very much. Even with the awful thing he did to scare Argent, the motive was to protect Argent and enable him to have what Veris thought he’d want.
But now Father was the one who had made the stupid mistake. Celia knew that Father didn’t care that Argent liked boys; nothing like that ever mattered to him. What he did care about was that if people knew that Argent liked boys, it would give the king an excuse to refuse to give him a royal princess for his wife, and maybe even to disinherit him. Father had just been trying to teach Argent not to get caught, and it had never occurred to him that Argent wanted love more than power.
(The bolding of the words above stands in for the book’s italics.)
I didn’t think he loved Roric at all, although maybe by the end he was starting to be proud of him, which seems to be the way to Veris’s heart. Celia fell in the middle. He loved her, but I read him as holding her unequal to Argent in his heart because she was a girl.
Jennie: I’d agree with that assessment.
Spoiler: Show
The start of the m/m romance was lovely, but I wanted more, way more, and also it made me wonder whether the curse ever really worked, because didn’t Argent’s suitor give him a gift as early as during Summer games? Or was it not supposed to signify anything romantic yet?
Janine: Argent got the gift before the curse, it wasn’t in effect yet then. Also, the curse only affects Argent, and has no bearing on the other person and their actions.
Sirius: Yes, my bad, he definitely got the gift before the curse, but I disagree that the curse has no bearing on the other person and their actions. To me it is the opposite the curse has no bearing on Argent. I went and reread the quote because I was worried I misread it but I still interpret it the same. To me the curse says that the boys won’t love him, not that Argent won’t be able to love them.
“Go to the Summer Lands! Go ride a shaihul, fight a dragon, be the greatest knight who ever lived. Just see if it makes you happy! I hope you meet a hundred beautiful summerling boys and none of them love you. I hope no one else is ever stupid enough to love you again!”
Janine: You are right, of course. I was confused.
Spoiler: Show
Jennie: I would have liked the romance more if I liked Argent’s suitor more.
Sirius: Oh I liked him just fine. Not that I liked all his actions, but broody lead who is being pulled between the oath to get revenge and love? Yeah, I liked that a lot. Just needed more.
Janine: I fall somewhere between you two where he is concerned. I liked him better the more tormented he became.
Spoiler: Show
Jennie: What did you think of the fae? The portrayal was in line with other depictions I’ve seen of fairies as being sort of feckless and cruel, but even went a bit further.
Sirius: I thought fae portrayal was pretty typical.
Janine: They were classic fae, but I didn’t think they were particularly darker. There are a lot of stories involving dark Fae. I refer you to The Cruel Prince and its sequels – which I really think you would like.
Jennie: You’re right – I should be clear that these fae were dark by the standards of what I’ve read, but I’m vaguely aware that there are darker portrayals out there.
Janine: I really loved this novella. I have actually read it twice because I liked it so much, and one of the things I love is how I noticed new things when I reread it. One of my favorites has to do with the embroidery on the bottom of a skirt Celia works on. If you read the novella, go back and reread all the references to it.
Jennie: I did just reread that and it’s lovely!
I really loved the novella too. I should probably reread the whole thing because I think it is a pretty intricate story with a lot of layers.
What do you think of the idea of a full-length version of this book, a la Spinning Silver?
Sirius: I enjoyed it but I am afraid the longer version would be padded. I think this was just about right.
Janine: I have seen other readers make similar suggestions but, like Sirius, I think this length is perfect. The pacing is great.
What grades would you give this one? It’s an A for me.
Jennie: I’d give it an A-.
Sirius: B+ because I wanted a better explanation as to how curse worked or did not work. And when I say I wanted I always stress that I am not trying to rewrite the story as written – only that what was on page did not quite work for me.
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Okay, you three have swayed me into giving this a try after I totally lost interest in the last quarter of Spinning Silver.
@Jayne: I hope you like it! I will be interested to hear what you think.